With Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, motorsport has two prominent fighters against climate change. How much does that say about the scene in general? A Liechtenstein motorsport driver and a Swiss motorsport driver tell the story.
Liechtensteiner Fabienne Wohlwend drives in the W series.
Ironically, Lewis Hamilton was concerned: “The thought of where the world is headed makes me sad. Our species is becoming more and more likely to become extinct as we overexploit our resources.” At least since the seven-time Formula 1 world champion posted these sentences on Instagram three years ago, climate protection has also arrived in the motorsport world. Hamilton received malice and accusations of double standards for his message from many users.
But how does Hamilton’s attitude reflect the motorsport scene as a whole? How do younger racers view the climate crisis? For example Fabienne Wohlwend and Jeremy Seewer. Wohlwend, 24, drives in the W-Series, a car racing series in which only women take part. Seewer, 28 years old, rides motocross in the world championship premier class MXGP.
Wohlwend and Seewer may be a little older than Greta Thunberg, but they are still part of a generation that is loudly calling for more active action in the climate crisis. How do they both view their profession as motorsport enthusiasts?
“There is a change in our generation”
Wohlwend can certainly understand the concerns that arise from motorsport: “In our generation there is a change towards environmentally conscious thinking. That’s important to me personally. I live in Liechtenstein and therefore in one of the most beautiful places in the world. And I want to be able to still ski or hike in the mountains in 20 or 50 years.”
Above all, it is everyday things that make Wohlwend climate-conscious. Wohlwend buys regional products. She also enjoys spending her free time in Liechtenstein; so she doesn’t always go far away. She mentions recycling as well as avoiding littering.
But she doesn’t go to climate demonstrations. In the youth series, too much politicization can quickly intimidate sponsors or team bosses. In addition, the question arises as to how many people can be reached with climate messages. Wohlwend therefore thinks it makes sense for a star like Hamilton, who has 30 million followers on Instagram, to use his platforms.
The pressure is increasing from both inside and outside
In addition to Hamilton, his Formula 1 colleague Sebastian Vettel is also self-critical when it comes to the climate crisis. In an interview with “Zeit”, Vettel spoke in detail about the conflict of conscience that goes along with his sport.
The fact that such passages appear again and again in interviews shows that the pressure on motorsport enthusiasts comes from both inside and outside. In addition to self-reflection, the media’s view of motorsport is playing an increasingly important role.
Formula 1 star Sebastian Vettel also comments on the climate crisis.
Fabienne Wohlwend also notices that. “In interviews, I’ve already been asked questions like: ‘What are you doing for the environment?’ or ‘Don’t you feel bad?'” Wohlwend is good at dealing with critical voices, and she doesn’t find them stressful. She says: “I spend 90 percent of the time I’m in the racing car in the racing simulator anyway.”
In addition, Wohlwend recognizes a positive development that goes hand in hand with the climate debate. “Motorsport will eventually switch to renewable energies. Individual e-fuels are already in the test phase. Formula E has also been around for several years. I could well imagine driving with more climate-friendly fuels. For example with hydrogen or a bio-fuel.”
“We can stand behind it as it is currently”
That is also conceivable for Jeremy Seewer. “Motocross races in particular convey a lot of emotions about the engine through the sound. Maybe in the future there will be a solution how to do this with renewable energies and still convey emotions.»
Seewer’s father rode motocross, and to this day Seewer is fascinated by the combination of man and machine inherent in the sport. Wohlwend also came into contact with motorsport early on. She sat in a kart for the first time when she was seven years old.
Seewer’s season begins in March and ends in September. The races take place in Europe, Asia and the USA. “I travel a lot because of my job and see some things that make me think: This is a much bigger environmental pollution than motorsport.”
Seewer brings up the food waste he encounters during his travels. The lack of climate affinity that he perceives in the USA also irritates him: “In America, nobody is interested in how much petrol a car uses. In some parts of the world everyone is talking about environmental issues, elsewhere they are irrelevant. It doesn’t go together and it’s frustrating.”
Motocross pro Jeremy Seewer (left) sees the problems in motorsport primarily in the trips that are necessary for the races.
Seewer’s work as a racing driver does not give him a guilty conscience. “We can stand behind it as it is currently.” In his free time, he tries to live climate-consciously. Away from the racetrack, Seewer emits as few unnecessary emissions as possible. For example, he doesn’t drive around pointlessly, hardly orders things online and nothing that’s cheap but doesn’t last long. He shops locally and tries to avoid food waste as much as possible.
“The motocross races themselves are peanuts. The most climate-damaging are the travel, the trappings and the fans who come to the races. But that’s the same with football or skiing,” says Seewer.
According to Seewer, there are few talks about the climate crisis in the scene. Seewer doesn’t see celebrities from the motorsport scene like Hamilton as role models. “Hamilton is a bad example. Anyone who flies to the races in a private jet doesn’t think much about a climate-neutral way of life.” In fact, Hamilton owned a private jet in eye-catching red, which he has now sold again.
Motorsport is not alone with its emissions
A sober look at motorsport helps, particularly because of contradictory images such as that of Hamilton and his jet. In research circles it is believed that the Fuel emissions directly caused by motorsport are negligible in relation to other sources of emissions.
However, it is difficult to state how many emissions a Formula 1 race or an entire season takes up, for example. The limits of everything that goes with such calculations are fluid.
The same applies to the question of how much technical innovation motorsport delivers and how much of it can be applied to road traffic. Christian Bauer, who researches the sustainability of current and future transport systems at the Paul Scherrer Institute, believes that motorsport is negligible for a lot of research work.
Bauer says: “I can imagine that the innovation factor in combustion engines is still important to some extent. When it comes to electric cars, however, I’m not so sure anymore. If you put the money that goes into motorsport directly into research into future mobility, you would probably get at least as much out of it.”
So why should motorsport be good at all? In view of the climate crisis, such questions affect many sports. After all, almost all sports at a professional level involve an enormous emissions burden.
Fabienne Wohlwend at a race in Singapore.
“In America nobody is interested in how much gas a car uses,” says Jeremy Seewer.
A current example of this is the soccer World Cup, which is due to take place in Qatar. Whose alleged climate neutrality does not keep what it promises. In Qatar, for example, which wants to present itself as climate-neutral, a lot of artificial and therefore high-energy water supply is required.
Ultimately, many sports are caught between the climate impact and the social and economic benefits associated with holding the events. Sebastian Vettel recently showed once again that motorsport in particular must continue to deal with these opposites. The former Formula 1 world champion wore a T-shirt at the Canadian Grand Prix in June that read “Stop tar sand mining” and “Canada’s climate crime”.
Alberta’s energy minister, Sonya Savage, used the momentum to justify the downsizing on Twitter. She also accused Vettel’s action of being the “top of hypocrisy”. However, she will not have initiated any really new reflections on Vettel. He’s long since accepted his ambiguity, saying earlier this year, “I’m not a saint.”